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On this day, 22 July 2010, Welsh bands The Automatic and Funeral For A Friend played Cardiff University Funeral For A Friend were on their Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation Tour.
REVIEW - BUZZ - FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND + THE AUTOMATIC + YOUNG GUNS
Solus, Cardiff Students’ Union, Cardiff
Thurs 22 July
Subtitled Saying Goodbye to Darran Smith, Thursday’s show at Solus proved to be a fitting send-off for the departing guitarist, with a celebration of the band’s work over the past eight years. Particular focus was given to early material, including the first performance of 2003’s debut album Casually Dressed & Deep In Conversation in its entirety.
Indeed, there was an atmosphere of expectation amongst the excitable crowd, released in a mosh-pit frenzy when the band launched into opener Rookie of the Year. Despite the somewhat melancholy motive for the evening’s performance, frontman Matt Davies was in high spirits, with frequent jokes about the predictability of the setlist as well as several courageous stage-dives into a frantic sea of hands.
A brief interval was followed by the band’s return to the stage for 2007’s Into Oblivion (Reunion). The hits kept coming, with a ferocious rendition of latest single Wrench demonstrating a band that shows no sign of slowing down. Matt Tuck, vocalist from Bridgend contemporaries Bullet For My Valentine, joined the action onstage for a dual-vocal assault in fan favourite This Year’s Most Open Heartbreak, ahead of the bands’ joint European tour later this year.
2005 single History proved to be a fitting end to the evening, with the repeated refrain “your history is mine” echoed by Davies’ assertion that “Darran Smith will always be part of Funeral For A Friend”. Judging from tonight’s performance, the band has a lot of history yet to tell, albeit with one less storyteller.
Funeral For A Friend - Setlist
Rookie of the Year
Bullet Theory
Juneau
Bend Your Arms to Look Like Wings
Escape Artists Never Die
Storytelling
Moments Forever Faded
She Drove Me to Daytime Television
Red Is the New Black
Your Revolution Is a Joke
Waking Up
Novella
Encore:
Into Oblivion (Reunion)
The Art of American Football
Roses for the Dead
Wrench
Streetcar
You Want Romance?
This Year's Most Open Heartbreak
(with Matt Tuck)
History
The Automatic - Setlist
Recover
On the Campaign Trail
Interstate
This Is a Fix
Sleepwalking
Something Else
Run & Hide
Steve McQueen
